Bloch Receives 2013 Körber European Science Prize

Photonics.comJun 2013
HAMBURG, Germany, June 14, 2013 — Experimental physicist Dr. Immanuel Bloch has received the 2013 Körber European Science Prize, presented by the Körber Foundation for his groundbreaking research in the field of quantum simulation with ultracold atoms.

The annual prize, which is endowed with €750,000 (about $999,000), honors European scientists working on particularly innovative research projects in the physical and life sciences.

In his experiments, Bloch has developed microscopic light crystals from laser beams in whose optical lattices ultracold atoms are trapped. This quantum simulator serves as a model for the examination of fundamental quantum mechanics processes in materials such as metal, and it paves the way for a new area of research at the interface between quantum optics, quantum information processing and solid-state physics.

Bloch’s quantum simulator can be used to develop theoretical models that accurately monitor the structure of solids; it also can facilitate laboratory experiments under extreme, previously unattainable conditions. Insights from the findings could help to develop materials with tailored quantum properties, including new superconductors that conduct electricity without loss. He also hopes one day to use the simulator as a quantum computer.

Bloch studied physics at the University of Bonn and has conducted research at Stanford University. He received his doctorate in 2000 from Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU) working under Theodor Hänsch, who won a Nobel Prize in physics. He has served as the scientific director of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics since 2008 and as a professor of quantum optics at LMU since 2009.

The area of optics in which quantum theory is used to describe light in discrete units or "quanta" of energy known as photons. First observed by Albert Einstein's photoelectric effect, this particle description of light is the foundation for describing the transfer of energy (i.e. absorption and emission) in light matter interaction.